The New Zealand Government’s climate change legislation has been passed into law.
“The Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill has implications for every household and the potential to change the make-up of the labour force as environmental factors gain increasing importance in business. It will eventually bring all sectors of the economy under a regime which sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gas they can emit. Those that breach their limit will have to buy credits from those that are below their cap. Electricity comes under it in 2010, transport in 2011 and agriculture in 2013.
“Climate Change Minister David Parker launched the third reading debate, saying he was proud New Zealand had risen to meet the greatest challenge facing the world.”
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Parliament Passes Climate Change Bill, The National Business Review, September 10, 2008
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Gee…and I thought Hitler died in his bunker at the end of WWII. It doesn’t surprise me, however. I lived in New Zealand for a year, and although I enjoyed the Kiwis, they are definitely a conservative bunch, with many bordering on anal.
This legislation goes way too far, and trying to lay that on Canadians would be regarded as a joke. Most of us would simply ignore it.
I remember going to New Zealand at a time when work was plentiful. I found it humourous that unions were government controlled and wages increases were determined through the government. Yet, when a union leader was thrown in jail one morning for contempt of court, the entire country came to a standstill till he was released. Bus drivers just stopped their busses in the middle of the road till they got the all-clear. I was deeply impressed by that but could not understand unions allowing themselves to be controlled by the government.
If this goes too far in New Zealand, I can see them all pulling a general strike.
Gordon, this is welcome news – means mroe young New Zealanders will be coming over to work – my drilling crews are 90% NZ (White and Maori) and leave the aussies boys in their wake in terms of work ethic and productivity.
With this legislation it will be interesting to see how it takes for NZ to become the Cuba of the Pacific.
Herself does have a problem, though.
For at least 5 years, she has been trying to find a useable method of measuring CH4 output from the sheep/cattle population on the South Island.
Apart from any GHG considerations that may be assumed to pertain, these farms are owned by “old” NZ money – lefties and NZ Labour hate them.
NZ is one of the countries I’ve done persistent work in over about 15 years now. I’ve watched the evolution of this with some amusement – it’s a very tiny economy, with power losses in Auckland regularly. This will help a lot.
As a resident of New Zealand, this was indeed a sad day.
There is, of course, considerable sentiment against this legislation, as evidenced for example at http://www.nzcpr.com/ but there has been little open debate in public. The opposition party voted against it, but actually they support the basic concept and only differ on minor details.
But I was under the impression that such measures were also on the way in Australia and elsewhere as well. No?
Louis Hissink…glad it’s working for you.
I worked in Auckland for about a year as an electronics technician. There was a lot of work in those days. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth, but I was thinking of checking out Australia for a working holiday, even though the authorities will probably nix the idea. I’m now a fully qualified electrician as well as a technican, with computer experience. Any ideas on the situation there re working permits, etc.?
Steve Schapel said…”But I was under the impression that such measures were also on the way in Australia and elsewhere as well”.
We are on the way to an election here in Canada. We have the typical Conservative and Liberal parties and a labour-type party called the NDP.
The Tories are opposed to Kyoto, but the Liberals and NDP are supportive of it. The Liberals, who have a chance to get in, are pushing a Green Shift platform which encompasses carbon taxes, carbon trading and all that nonsense. Right now, the Tories have a commanding lead in the polls, and although I don’t like their attitude toward social programs, I have my fingers crossed that they’ll get in.
I was doing a bit of reading as to what’s behind the IPCC and it comes down to a Canadian, Maurice Strong. Apparently he is the father of the modern Green movement and has quite a left-wing, ideological approach. I’m not talking labour party ideology as we know it in the western world, I’m talking Leninist, in the sense of forcing an ideology on people.
Jaworowski talks about it in these articles:
http://www.mitosyfraudes.org/Ingles/Warm.html
http://www.warwickhughes.com/icecore/zjmar07.pdf
Here’s a wiki article about Strong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Strong
A quote from Strong, “We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse”.
This is the guy responisble for setting up Kyoto. He seems to be an environmental activist and directly linked to the IPCC.
NZ’s are even bigger idiots than we are.
They produce .1% of the planet’s co2 so their sacrifice should make all the difference persuing the totalitarian dream.
They are as mad as hatters.
Gordon
Electricians – there is quite a demand for this profession in Western Australia – wiring new government houses in the north west. We call that profession “Sparkies” for obvious reasons.
Being from Kanuk land you should have too much difficulty getting a visa.
Gordon,
You finally discovered Maurice Strong – excellent – he is a billionaire Canadian as well.
Louis…thanks for info. I was looking at Perth anyway, girlfriend fancies Shark Bay.
About Strong. Canada is a strange place in many ways. Graeme has a go at Lefties, which makes me chuckle. Half of us in Canada are technically Lefties, since we support universal medicare, pensions, unemployment insurance, etc. That doesn’t make us Communists, as many Yanks would label us, as they go broke the first time they get sick.
It also doesn’t make us bleeding heart liberals either. I don’t know where the association comes between so-called Lefties and global AGW. I’m thinking of voting Tory in our upcoming election.
I’m a contractor, so I bridge the gap between left and right, which hopefully lands me in the middle. I defend a person’s right to make his/her own way and make a decent profit. I stop at people making excess profits and holding others to ransom, as the oil companies and speculators are doing now.
What bothers me is people like Strong, who have way more than they could ever use, and talk down to the rest of us like we’re a load of peons. That’s the other half of Canada, based on the politics they support.
I have always suspected a looney fringe behind the IPCC since there has always been one behind the UN. One of the leaders, Houghton, is a ponce. I was still suprised at the degree to which people like Strong seem willing to go in their ideological bent. There comes a time when the average person, who just wants to be left alone, has to get out of his/her stupor and tell those people to beggar off.
So, Gordon, you’re not a billionaire, as intimated by Louis? 🙂
Neville stated about NZers:
“They are as mad as hatters.”
I must agree that it has got pretty sick over here. I have just looked at this site, having seen an ad about it with my electricity bill:
http://www.treepeople.co.nz/Home.mvc/
As the father of a 7 year old, I am horrified at how kids are being targeted by crap like this.
“It will eventually bring all sectors of the economy under a regime which sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gas they can emit”
One of the most important greenhouse gases with the largest greenhouse effect is water vapour. What is the limit set for water vapour in NZ, how much they can release?
Does anybody know of scientific journals that examine the causal link between anthropogenic water vapour and global warming and that quantified the extent of this warming?
Gordon,
Perth ! Good decision – we have a mining boom here and people of your skills are missing. I am in Halls Creek and trying to get an electrical contractor, or any contractor for that matter, is one long hassle. Sooner you lot get over here the better 🙂
Tony G
Is that what the NZ legislation states explicitly? Regulation of greenhouse gases or CO2 specifically – this is a bit frightening.
“Over time, the NZ ETS will cover all gases and all sectors, in order to minimise overall costs to the economy and operate with efficiency and equity.”
Line 7 here
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2007/0187-1/3.0/DLM1130901.html#DLM1130901
Apparently it is “all sectors, all gases”
I suppose if all the greenies start having cold showers that could cut anthropogenic water vapours a fair bit. Hopefully that will cool things down.
Tony,
That document you pointed to refers to “all six major greenhouse gases”.
I see specific mention of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. I don’t think water vapour is mentioned.
Louis,
At Wellington airport recently, there was a huge high-tech display, with life-size model of a cow, along with videos and all sorts. They have developed a device that the cow wears, with a tube going past its mouth, with a sensor that measures the % of methane in the cow’s breath. Farmers will have to grow grass species that result in lower methane emissions, or face additional taxes.
True story. As you say, a bit frightening.
test for link
“all six major greenhouse gases”.
According to Wikipedia; On earth, the most abundant greenhouse gases are, in order of relative abundance:
* water vapor
* carbon dioxide
* methane
* nitrous oxide
* ozone
* CFCs
Are these the “six major greenhouse gases”?
It goes on to say;
The most important greenhouse gases are:
* water vapor, which causes about 36–70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth. (Note clouds typically affect climate differently from other forms of atmospheric water.)
* carbon dioxide, which causes 9–26%
* methane, which causes 4–9%
* ozone, which causes 3–7%
Of the greenhouse gases emitted by anthropogenic activities, water vapour emission would be the most prolific.
Current state-of-the-art climate models predict that increasing water vapor concentrations in warmer air will amplify the greenhouse effect
Apparently according to the “AGW science” the largest single contributor to the cause of the greenhouse effect on Earth is water vapour. Increasing water vapour concentrations in warmer air will amplify the greenhouse effect they say, but increasing water vapour concentrations by anthropogenic emissions of water vapour will not.
So according to the “AGW science” we should kerb emissions of the minor contributing greenhouse gases and continue increasing emissions of the gas that causes up to 70% of the greenhouse effect- water vapour.
Tony,
Not wishing to detract at all from what you have said… But I would simply caution about relying on Wikipedia as a reference source.
Thanks Steve noted, although Wikipedia could be a more reliable reference source than the IPCC.
It is hard to work out what practical implications will result from the NZ legislation, so we will wait and see what happens. I can not find “all six major greenhouse gases” they refer to and it is unlikely they will want to kerb water vapour emissions.
It is just my (somewhat off topic) personal view that the AGW proponents have all but ignored the largest single contributor to the the greenhouse effect ‘water vapour’ in their hypothesis, this IMHO is a major flaw in their argument.
Tony G…please be advised that Wikipedia is edited by a contributor to realclimate, William Connolly, a computer programmer. The figure that CO2 contributes 9 – 26% of the greenhouse effect sounds like it came right out of RC. It’s highly unlikely that a gas whose density is 38 molecules to 100,000 of air could have that impact. Lindzen calims water vapour accounts for 97% of the GH effect.
Yes, it is difficult comprehend how they can rank carbon so highly.
Whether water is 75% or 97% there is still a hell of a lot more water than the carbon.
Maybe these links are a more accurate portrayal than Wikipedia;
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/17402
http://www.skepticalscience.com/water-vapor-greenhouse-gas.htm
http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm#satellite-temps
Thanks, Tony, for pointing to
http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm
which I had not seen before, and found to be a great summary of some of the key information.
It appears the AGW proponents disregard or fluff water vapour in their calcs.
The other inconsistency is they claim it is getting warmer. At first glance the weather stations do not seem to indicate this.
Looking at the monthly record highest temperatures where I live in Sydney, it appears the record highest temperatures were in the distant past.
If there is global warming occurring you would expect it to be getting hotter with the highest temperature readings increasing by now. This doesn’t seem to be happening.
A quick perusal of other long established weather stations where the immediate surrounds have not been altered to cause a heat sink island, shows no indication of any recent warming temperatures, or any recent increase in the highest temperatures.
MELBOURNE
HOBART
The other capital cities do not have long established weather stations, as these have been close or moved.
I have included a few regional ones;
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_029126_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_040101_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_040190_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_009631_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_012045_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_014825_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_069010_All.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_074128_All.shtml
The readings seem to indicate it was warmer in the past, am I missing something?